The present invention relates to a video game apparatus for displaying game images to execute a specified game in a game space on a display surface of a monitor, a game image display control method and a readable storage medium.
As a video game in which game images are displayed on a display surface of a monitor to execute a specified game in a game space, a baseball game is, for example, known. In the baseball game, if a huge ground is entirely displayed on the display surface of the monitor, images of bases, players and the like become small, which is inconvenient in progressing the game. Accordingly, if, for example, a ball (character) hit by a batter (character) has flown to the outfield, the game image is moved to an outfield area following the ball, whereas a small screen is provided as a window at an end of the display surface to display the infield to show movements of runner(s).
With the conventional display method, a game player needs to proceed a game while viewing the game image displaying the outfield area to which the ball has flown and the small screen separate from the game image of the ground and displayed in a reduced size at the end of the display surface. This presents a problem of difficulty to play a game while grasping a game state and a game progress. Particularly, if the video game apparatus is of the portable type in which a monitor and an operation unit are integrally provided, it is difficult to distinguish the display content on the small screen unless the game player fixes his eyes since the monitor is unavoidably small.
In view of the above problems residing in the prior art, an object of the present invention is to provide a video game apparatus and a game image display control method which enable the progress of a game to be easily grasped and a game operation to be smoothly performed, and a readable storage medium.
In order to fulfill the above object, a video game apparatus, according to the present invention, comprises a monitor on which game images are displayed and display control means for displaying the game images on a display surface of the monitor to execute a specified game in a game space. Where the display control means includes (i) reference image display means for displaying a specific game image in the game space as a reference game image, (ii) combined image display means for producing a combined game image by displaying an adjacent game image neighboring outside a partial game image along a first direction within the reference game image in place of the partial game image, and (iii) switch control means for switching the display of the reference game image and that of the combined game image to each other according to a game situation.
These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent upon a reading of the following detailed description and accompanying drawings.